To: d:oug who wrote (45991 ) 12/15/1999 1:15:00 AM From: d:oug Respond to of 116756
(GATA News) Will proceed under the Freedom of Information Act to get... Frustrated and bored. I know most of you feel that way... .....to say that if one likes a contrarian time to buy due to lack of interest, THIS IS IT! ... the Swiss gold sales plan was given final parliamentary approval... ... the Swiss want to make like the English. Sell gold low and buy... ... CREDIT, CREDIT, CREDIT!!!!... Barrick Gold hedges about 14 million ounces (or about 25%) of their future production (plus they have written about 4 million ounces of calls) while Anglogold has hedged about 14 million ounces or 10% of their production. Both firms stated today that their hedging was not implemented as a profit center, but as a risk management tool. From what I hear both companies relayed to guests that credit over gold loans would be a significant market factor next year. The feeling at the seminar was that the "gold carry trade" will go the way of the dinosaur for hedge funds and speculators and that it would not surprise anyone that another Ashanti/Cambior type of event will erupt all over again via another gold producer. This credit issue is a Cafe special. Charles Peabody has been all over this - banks are finally cracking down on their loans. Why should gold be any different? Less gold loans means less gold supply hitting the market next year. What are the "Goons" going to do next year to fill a 100 to 150 tonnes a month supply/demand deficit? Barrick and Anglogold are doing this seminar thing in London, Toronto and New York and both are trying to placate stockholders. This is a bit mindboggling. Why don't they both get together and buy back 20 million ounces of gold? What would that do to the price of gold? $50 up $75 higher?. What would that do the share prices of their companies? Would they double in price? Is not that what shareholders want? If I were a Barrick shareholder that is what I would want. Instead, they go around with these inane seminars. Today, with an unchanged gold price, Barrick Gold closed 17 1/4 down 1/2. Barrick shareholders must be pleased they educated London investors this morning. Well done. Barrick has become an incredible negative PR force and factor for all the gold companies. It has a leadership role and, instead of being the flagship, it has become a rowboat. And their rowboat performance is affecting the share prices of many gold companies - the baby and bath water story. What a shame! What a despicable outrage! Cafe member, Arthur Hailey, is having an impact. First, there was David Guyatt's wonderful piece of journalism in this month's London BusinessAge (Dos Passos Table) and then today, I just got word from Business Week they planned to do story on what Arthur Hailey has done and why. Arthur has become a one man Barrick wrecking crew. Good for him. Maybe, other Barrick shareholders will follow suit by selling that stock and Barrick will finally reverse its very aggressive hedging strategy position. Potpourri and the Gold Shares Led by Barrick Gold, the XAU sank again today closing at 62.80 down 2.15. A stunner. After the close the API oil stats were released. They showed a whopping 7.1 million barrel surprise draw down. Crude spiked all the way up to $26.90 in after hours trading. It last traded around $26.20. No problem though. There is no inflation. Can you tell me why the bond market cannot rally to save itself if there is "no inflation" in the U.S. The dollar is generally firm. So what's up? The mainstream pundits yap all day long about benign inflation in The States and the bonds sink to 6.31% yields. The bonds were clobbered today. Where will the yields go when the numbers come out poorly, which they surely are going to in the future? Bill King of M. Ramsey King Securities reported today: "Nobel laureate economist, the venerable Paul Samuelson (he of the standard economic text in the US), says the fed should consider tightening interest rates because the stock market is a bubble. Samuelson warned the major danger spot for the US economy is a bursting of the stock market bubble." Of course, Cafe members know that is what our David Tice has been saying for some time now. Have any of you been following the progress of Tyco. David Tice came out with a research report criticizing their accounting methods. He was brutalized on CNBC by some of their commentators and also by the mainstream analyst Tyco apology crowd. Since then Floyd Norris of the New York Times has written a column questioning their accounting practices and the SEC announced that they are conducting an informal investigation into Tyco. The Tyco apologists and owners of the Tyco shares continue to promo the stock. Meanwhile the stock dropped from $54 to $23 over the past couple of months before rebounding and closing at $30 7/8 today. David Tice was not shooting from the hip on this at all as the mainstream analysts would like the public to believe. His information flow is as good as it gets on this one. The market is giving its verdict so far and it says Tice is right. All the horses and all the Kings men and all the brokerage house aggressive buy rantings have not been able to right the stock back up. I go into this because of the continued and disturbing commentary about rational dissent in the U.S. mainstream press world. I know you know where I am coming from on this, but those that go out and do their homework and stumble on disturbing news that doesn't suit mainstream thinking are looked down upon or ignored. GATA is a classic example. After one year, not one mainstream U.S. story about our efforts to expose the dastardly goings on in the gold market. We are derided for calling the bullion dealers, "Hannibal Cannibals." Then the Ashanti/Cambior mess. The story gets great coverage in the FT. We notify Cheryl Strauss Einhorn of Barrons for 6 months that the bullion dealers (especially Goldman) are creating a big mess. She won't give us the time of day. But because of the FT story, she wants in on the act, so as not to be looked as an "out of it" journalist. Here is a quote from a story she did on the affair: Dec. 11 Barrons - Commodities Corner - " Indeed, industry officials confirm that they have been contacted by government regulators such as the British Financial Services Authority and the U. S. Federal Reserve. "We've been contacted and had conversations with both U.S and British regulators," confirms the head of one of the world's top bullion outfits." GATA told Malcolm Peters of the FSA many months ago that Goldman Sachs was up to no good and that they should look into the matter. Does anyone have a clue what is going on with the Ashanti bailout/takeover bid.? Last I saw came from this Bloomberg release on Lonmin Pic's chief executive, Nicholas Morrell: *Approval from the Ghanian government was not forthcoming. "We have no plans to resuscitate the proposals." "Until the discussion with the creditor banks are over with it is difficult for us to determine where the company stands." *"We fully expect the company to remain intact with all its assets. We'll support the board in the solutions they come to." Some feedback for you on our open letter to Alan Greenspan and Lawrence Summers. Since we have not heard from them, GATA will proceed under the Freedom of Information Act to get the answers to our questions. Again, we are only asking them for the truth as to what they are doing and we are entitled to get some straight answers. Perhaps that means taking them to Federal District Court to get those answers. If need be, so be it. In the meantime here is what one of your Cafe members is doing to help our side get some straight answers. It is very specific and result oriented: "I sent copies of the Allen Greenspan letter to Senators Toricelli and Lautenburg and Congresswoman Roukema of NJ asking that I would like their offices to provide me with answers to the questions posed to Mr.Greenspan. My plan is to try to follow my request through their offices. In other words, I plan to ask them to identify to me specifically how they will go about getting me the requested information. I also plan to ask them to identify a specific person on their staff who will be responsible for spearheading my request for the information. If we can force each elected representative to name a focal point in their offices, then it provides us with the ability to micro manage that person in getting the answers. We can direct that person in the right direction to "help them make this task easier." Let's face it. These people will not know how to go about getting this information. That is where we can help them. We can tell them what questions to ask and of whom. If we get all the cafe members to work with their representatives offices, we can incrementally surround the Fed. We can also create a data base of responses and cross check the answers obtained as a validation method. I do not think this will be all that difficult. I will start with my representatives listed above and keep you appraised of my progress (optimistically)." Best Regards Greg Puzio Go for it Greg and thanks from all of us. The bank index cratered once again closing at 772.81. (Want to see a nasty chart. Take a peek at this one). Bond yields soared. The advance/decline line and the stock exchange new lows to highs continues to deteriorate. That does not bode well for the stock market bubble. Is the end VERY NEAR? Harry Schultz predicts an oil price explosion. Many savvy investors we speak to are very aware of the pipeline supply problems that are looming on the horizon. In 3 weeks we will have some answers. That is not a long time. The market should give us advance notice. If the oil price blows through $27 per barrel, look out. A 7% supply disruption caused the 1970's oil crisis. What if we have a 20% oil supply disruption due to pipeline breakdowns? That is somewhat likely according to what I hear. What will that do to the price of gold? The manipulation crowd lost control of the gold market in early October when the genie got out of the bottle. It can happen all over again and most likely will. But this time, the genie should stay out for good. Keep the Faith, Bill Murphy ( Midas ) Chairman, Gold Anti Trust Action (GATA) gata.org Le Patron, Le Metropole Cafe lemetropolecafe.com